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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Using an apple to prove the existence of God

Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.”

1. Loss of morality or a foundation for morality 2. Loss of meaning 3. Loss of hope

Following on the heels of that introduction, Mr. Zacharias then began to trace a three stage argument for the existence of God. What he outlined in the first stage is what I would like to explore in today’s post. We will summarize what he said and then track out some additional implications.

Proving God’s existence with a simple apple

As Ravi Zacharias began to present the first stage of his argument for the existence of God, he used a simple apple and then made reference to the imagery of falling dominoes. Imagine an apple. Now the apple, or any other object in the universe, whether the smallest sub-atomic particle or the largest galaxy, all have one thing in common: they by themselves cannot account for their own existence. As you hold an apple in your hand, ask yourself: “Whence came this apple”? Of course the answer would be: “an apple tree”. The next question would follow: “When then the tree?” The answer of course would be an apple seed”. The next logical question of course would be: “whence then the seed?” The only answer of course would be an apple.

As Ravi Zacharias presented this basic demonstration of the chain of cause and effect, he then noted how it would be impossible for this chain to be indefinite in length. Think about it, if there would had been an infinite amount of apples, seeds and trees going all the way back to eternity, then there would be no way we could be holding an apple currently in our hand.

In similar form, imagine a domino called “x”. We find that domino “x” had been knocked over by a previous domino, and that previous domino knocked over by a prior one, and so on. Just like the tree, apple, seed chain of cause and effect, there would be no way one could have an infinite series of dominoes in an infinite chain of cause and effect, otherwise we would had never observed the falling of domino “x”.

What is the point Ravi Zacharias is making? That everything in the universe has to have had a cause, being that everything, from sub-atomic particles, to dominoes, to apples to galaxies had a beginning. Everything in the universe ultimately had a beginning; and in turn, everything that had a beginning has a cause. Furthermore, being that everything in the universe is composed of matter and energy that is on every level incapable of giving an account for its own existence, then it follows that the Cause for all things lies outside of the universe. According to Ravi Zacharias, that Cause can only be One – God.